Carol's Chickens

Topaz has been pulling feathers from the girl’s necks. She has so far targeted Butterscotch on the head and breast, Honey and Emerald on the neck and now Toffee’s neck has just started to miss some feathers.

Honey has been pulling feathers from all the girls fluffy behinds. I have seen her pull a handful of feathers from Butterscotch and today she was trying to pull feathers from Peaches and Barley and then Speckles behind. I shout NO NO NO every time I see this and move between her and the target.

I am so upset to see this again and just can’t understand why this has started now. These two girls were the only ones that were part of the flock when this happened before but surely they can’t remember this behaviour from so far back and why now!

I think it’s to do with the start of egg laying and raging hormones because this sort of behaviour always starts at this time of year.

Emerald is getting a bare neck

Emerald’s bare patch

Honey is getting a bare neck

Toffee is just starting to get a bare patch

Toffee has a pale patch just below her beak which is where she is just starting to lose some feathers.

When I got Butterscotch out for her break today, I put her down on the patio and Topaz rushed over to her and pulled some of the fluff from her head. This is all that she has left on her head.

Butterscotch’s remaining head feathers

Butterscotch’s missing neck/breast feathers

I have also seen Topaz target this area on her breast and it is remaining patchy.

I hope against hope that this is a phase that will pass. I can’t re-home any more girls, especially little girls. I also can’t bare the thought of having a ragged flock like before.

I guess only time will tell and we will have to wait to see how this progresses and just keep everything crossed that it passes.

Last summer we paid off our mortgage and we are slowing down our business as we head towards semi retirement. My husband will get his pension next year, although it will be another ten years before I get mine. With this in mind we want to get any works needed on the house and garden done while we are still working full time.

We need to get our garden path done some time this year as it is cracking up and we would like to make some changes to our sitting room. But for now we want to have a new floor in our dining room.

We have wooden floor boards throughout the house which we have sanded and varnished but the dining room has a sort of parquet floor. This has been sanded to within an inch of it’s life (we have sanded it twice since we have been here) and the blocks are now so thin that they are coming out and it will only get worse.

The other thing that prompted us to do this now was that Homebase had a half price sale on their wooden flooring until March. Our next door neighbour is a handy man and we will pay him to lay the floor but we needed to get the boards while they are half price. Our neighbour said to store them in the room they are going in so that they are at the same temperature as the room.

We bought them in the last week of February even though our neighbour isn’t free to do the work for three more weeks as we didn’t want to miss out on the sale price.

The boards and the underlay came to three hundred pounds which we thought was very reasonable. Carpet would probably cost more. The underlay will go on top of the parquet flooring and then the boards on top. It will be a floating floor and the boards slot together so there are no nails.

The old floor went from the dining room and into the small space in front of the front door. There is concrete under the dining room floor but floor boards by the front door. My husband had to take up the floor in front of the front door as if we laid the new floor on top it would be too high creating a small step.

It was a mission taking this bit of floor up as it went under the door frame and caused all sorts of problems but my husband has now fixed the problems and repainted the dining room in readiness for the new floor.

The old floor

It doesn’t look so bad in a photograph but there are bits missing all over and the lines are now quite dark.

From the other direction

Close up

Bits missing

In front of the front door

We will continue the new floor through here as before because the boards have been cut in a line for pipework and there are loads of screws. We will have a threshold at the dining room door like the one at the sitting room door.

The new floor is stored behind a piece of furniture

Comparison between the the new boards and the old floor

We wanted to keep to a similar light colour as it keeps the room light and contrasts well with our furniture. There are two boards in this photo which I have laid side by side instead of staggering just to give a comparison of how different they will look. It will smarten the room up. We are looking forward to having our new floor but dreading the upheaval.

Today work begins

At half past eight our handy man began his work.

The first boards go down on top of the underlay

By lunch time nearly half the floor is laid

It’s three quarters done

Nearly there

By the end of the day the main part of the floor was laid. Tomorrow our man will be back to finish off. There is still the bit by the front door to do and the beading to go round the edges. It is looking good though.

Finishing the floor

Our man arrived first thing in the morning and continued his work. He laid the floor in front of the front door which was an awkward little area to do. He put the beading on the edges and by the time I got home at lunch time he had finished the floor and left.

The floor is finished

The area by the front door

Looking from the other direction

We decided to use beading instead of a threshold and luckily already had this piece from another job.

A closer view from this direction

We are really pleased with the look and also the feel of it. It will be easier to keep clean and is warmer under foot as instead of just concrete underneath there is now underlay, then wood, then the concrete.

To most people this won’t seem a dramatic change but we have been in this house for nine years and in that time we have done every room to how we like it so this was just a case of replacing a tired and worn out floor. It had been stained darker originally and when we sanded it back to the lighter colour it made the room look so much lighter. This is why we wanted to replace it with something of a similar colour.

It looks smarter and will last for many years as the boards are much thicker than the original flooring. We have no intention of ever doing it again.

One of the longest jobs while doing this room was getting this piece of furniture out of the alcove and removing and dusting my antique bottle collection then getting it back in place and arranging my bottles back in. I think they look really good now that they are clean and sparkly again.

My bottle collection

We are really pleased with this floor and it has been well worth doing. Our neighbour has made a really neat job of it and will be coming back soon to start the renovations in our sitting room.

I have thought recently that Emerald was getting ready to lay. Today she was very vocal and her face is very red. She settled herself in the nest box and flicked some shavings over her back.

A while later she gave a shout and when I checked there was a large egg. I remember that both Emerald and Toffee lay large eggs.

Emerald has a really red face

I am sure that I have never seen Emerald’s face so red. She has such a tiny comb but her face gets very red when she starts to lay. It is white during the winter months.

We now only have Toffee left to start and she is always the last, it was April last year, that is apart from Topaz who doesn’t seem to be bothering this year. Topaz laid eight eggs during January and February last year and six eggs during July and September the year before. I have never come across such an erratic layer before. I have no idea if she will begin to lay this year at some stage.

It’s odd because she practised in December and January but didn’t actually lay and she hasn’t been sitting on other girl’s eggs this year either. It’s as if she has just given up altogether.

I am pleased to have another girl laying and we have four eggs again today, that is, Barley, Peaches, Honey and Emerald. Well done girls!

Spring sets the girls hormones racing. They start to lay their eggs and seem to grow in confidence. They also strengthen or contest the pecking order.

I saw a few blood spots, this morning, behind their roosting perch in the chicken shed and on inspection see that Peaches has a spot on her comb that has been pecked. Peaches and Barley’s floppy combs are a target for pecking.

This afternoon when I went in I saw that Honey had blood on her comb that hadn’t been there earlier. Just as I was wondering what had happened to her Barley and Honey started scrapping. They were circling each other and grabbing each other by the back of the neck.

It seems that Barley is trying her luck at moving up the pecking order. At this time of year Honey and Amber used to do this. Honey finally moved up the ladder above Amber and has been second in the pecking order since we lost Sparkle. I don’t think Honey will give up her position easily despite a bloody comb.

Honey has blood on her comb

A close up of the blood on Honey’s comb

I hate it when the girls have these spats but there is nothing that we can do to stop them when we are not around.

Butterscotch’s pin feathers on her head have grown.

Butterscotch’s pin feathers

Those spikes on her head are the unopened feathers. I hope that when they open they will be fluffy enough to cover her head despite having some of her pins pulled out by Topaz. At least she is safe in the nest box at the moment while she is broody.

Finally I know I have put out a lot of egg photos recently but I can’t resist another one. Both Honey and Speckles laid today and their eggs are at each end of the size spectrum.

Honey’s egg is on the left and Speckles egg is on the right

The contrast in these two girl’s eggs makes me smile.

There always seems to be some drama going on in the run. I just hope there isn’t any more blood shed but I guess chickens will be chickens and the pecking order isn’t called the pecking order for no reason.

Last Sunday I received some lovely Mother’s day flowers. Gorgeous purple tulips. I decided to take a photo and then take another one a week later to see if they open up a bit more. The single tulip in the little vase on the right is one that I broke while arranging them but I didn’t want to waste it.

Mother’s Day flowers

Mother’s Day flowers one week later

The tulips are still looking lovely a week later. They have hardly changed apart from opening up a bit more. I think they will last a bit longer yet. I have enjoyed these lovely tulips.

Today Peaches was sharing a nest box with broody Butterscotch. This time there was no one in the other nest box though. The new trend seems to be to share with Butterscotch.

Peaches and Butterscotch share the nest box

Peaches pushed herself under Butterscotch’s wing

Peaches pushes her luck

I don’t know what Peaches was playing at but she pushed herself further and further underneath Butterscotch until Butterscotch lost patience with her and chased her out of the nest box.

Butterscotch landed a couple of pecks to Peaches back until Peaches jumped out of the nest box and went straight into the nest box next door. There she stayed until she had laid her egg.

Butterscotch is left in peace

Butterscotch fluffed herself up and settled in peace on her own once more.

Today Honey and Barley wanted to lay their eggs while broody Butterscotch just wanted to sit in a nest box.

This was the result.

Honey is in one nest box

Barley and Butterscotch share

This is good news because it means that if  we have a summer of Butterscotch going broody there won’t be a problem with the girls queueing up for the nest boxes.

The pattern here is that the other girls don’t like to share but Butterscotch is such a docile broody that she accepts sharing and she is the one the girls choose to share with. The other day Honey shared the nest box with Butterscotch. Today Barley has chosen Butterscotch to share with.

All the other girls make a fuss, lots of shouting and chasing each other out of the nest box but Butterscotch just sits quietly with no fuss at all. What a good broody girl she is.

I think the girls will manage together this summer just fine and Butterscotch will go her own sweet way without rocking any girls boat. What a sweet girl she is.

Since Butterscotch has been broody she has only taken a few seconds of dust flicking as her token dust bath.

I haven’t seen her come out of the nest box on her own at all but I am getting her out four times a day. I get her out for the morning sunflower seeds, again at lunch time, once more a few hours later and then again for the bedtime corn.

Today when I got her out for the third time she took herself straight into the run for a proper dust bath. It was so good to see her having a proper dust bath and I am sure she wouldn’t have done this without me getting her out.

It’s almost as if when I get her out she feels she has permission to go and eat, drink, scratch or dust bath. She sits on the patio in the spot that I put her down then when I give her a gentle push she takes off at speed to get her jobs done as quickly as possible.

Butterscotch takes a proper dust bath

She covers herself in dust

At such speed that she is blurred

Barley is always so interested in what Butterscotch is doing

You would be forgiven for thinking that Butterscotch had popped her clogs in this one

Here she is in dead chicken mode with a concerned Barley looking on, except of course we know that she is having a blissful moment and Barley is just helping. Barley scratches around her and straightens her feathers and flicks dirt from her.

Being broody may be doing her a favour at the moment. The pin feathers on her head are growing and while she is safely tucked away in the nest box all day Topaz has no chance to pull her pins out. I am hoping that her feathers will grow in while she is broody and this will give her a chance to keep her feathers.

On some of these photos you can just see some pins on her head although it is more difficult to see in a photo than in real life. I hope she will get enough feathers to cover her head.

I am quite used to the broody routine now and I think she is getting used to it too. She is an easy to handle broody girl so I don’t mind the routine at all.

It’s funny how much easier it is to tell which egg belongs to which girl when there are more girls laying. When there was one egg and I hadn’t seen who was in the nest box it was really difficult to tell. But now with four girls laying I can tell their eggs apart.

There would be five girls laying if Butterscotch hadn’t gone broody once more but Butterscotch’s eggs have always been easy to tell apart as they are quite distinct.

Four eggs from four girls

Honey’s is on the left and has a beige colour and is small and slightly pointed. The other three are all white but are different in size. Next to Honey’s egg is Barley’s small egg then Peaches bigger egg is next and on the right is Speckles large egg.

Speckles egg is almost the size of a small standard girl’s egg. Our smallest girl lays the biggest eggs. Ouch!

Each of these girls are laying an average of three eggs a week at the moment but that will probably increase as the season continues. Honey is in her fourth year of egg laying and I am really pleased that she is doing so well. By that I don’t mean because we are still getting eggs, although that is a bonus, but because she is laying without any problems. The older the girls get the more likely they are to run into egg laying problems.

I love that in a back garden flock we know our girls so well and can identify their eggs and also that they are not uniform like shop bought eggs. We embrace their eggs being different and each girl is so different too.

During the winter when Butterscotch went broody I just closed all the nest boxes and after a few days she came out of it and continued spending her days with the rest of the flock as usual.

Now though I have four other girls laying so closing the nest boxes is not an option. I therefore have a different routine. I get Butterscotch out of the nest box for the morning sunflower seeds, again at lunch time, once more mid afternoon and again for the bedtime corn. At this point I close the nest boxes so that she goes to roost in the chicken shed which I feel is better for her than disturbing her again by moving her from the nest box to the chicken shed myself.

I know they are supposed to have the sense to come out of the nest box a few times a day to eat, drink, poop and scratch or dust bath but I have never seen Butterscotch do this without my intervention.

Maybe if I left her she would do this but I prefer to take her out so that I know she has had some breaks and she seems to respond well to this intervention. By that I mean that she doesn’t turn straight back to the nest box but accepts my helping her to take a break and as quickly as she can she goes for a scratch, sometimes almost a dust bath, a quick preen, then food and water, a large broody poop somewhere along the way and then back to the nest box.

At least this way I can actually see her have some food and water and a little exercise. I decided to record her day with photographs.

Butterscotch is in the nest box

I lift Butterscotch out of the nest box

I close the nest box

A quick cuddle, I usually put her straight down but made an exception today

I put her down and touch her tail to move her off the spot

She has a furious peck

And scratch

She almost has a dust bath as Barley watches

She has a quick preen

She eats some pellets from the floor, no time to take them from the dish

She has some water

Some more pellets

Some more water

Then she heads back

To the nest box

In she goes

And fluffs herself up again

At the end of the day I lift her out again and she joins in with the bedtime corn

She tries to find her way back into the nest box which I have now closed.

She tries from the other side

It must be here somewhere

Maybe up here

Maybe down here

She gives up and goes to bed

A little later all the girls are in and Butterscotch is in her usual position in the middle

And so Butterscotch ends her day ready to do it all over again tomorrow. The other girls are managing to get their eggs laid and Butterscotch goes through this routine each day  and repeats the very same actions even down to standing on the nest box at the end of each day while searching for the way in.

I am satisfied that she is eating and drinking, scratching and pooping and we will continue in this way until she comes out of her broody spell once more. I guess we will be doing this at regular intervals all summer. At least she is a docile girl and no trouble to pick up and she lays very well in between her broody spells.